Rather than accepting the Board’s 500-page decision, the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) chose to appeal it to the High Court. The NZTA has now finalised its grounds of appeal, but given the complexity of those grounds, the hearing is likely to be lengthy, meaning that it cannot be scheduled in the near future.

We currently expect that the appeal will be heard in the second half of 2015, but this is yet to be confirmed.